Feeney: "Just A Poor Lamb Who Lost His Way"...Trib's Daniel Ruth Column

[madfloridian]

And it all led to some interesting conversation with a lady named Pepper Pennington. Yes, it is her real name.

I don't always read Daniel Ruth's columns. He is acerbic to the point of being unreadable sometimes. But I love that he went after Feeney.

Hat tip to FLA Politics blog for this back and forth between Daniel and Pepper.

Just a poor lamb who lost his way

Just how sleazy is Florida U.S. Rep. Tom Feeney, R-Where's Mine?

I've only written the first sentence to this column and already I want to take a shower.

Someday, when the ultimate history is written of unctuous, disingenuous, ethically challenged pols, Feeney, R-Why Yes, I'll Have Another, may well claim the dubious distinction of being a sort of one-man walking Tammany Hall-lite meets Eddie Haskell.

Feeney, R-Brown Bag? What Brown Bag? is currently running for a fourth term in Washington, which might suggest those poor, unsuspecting folks in the 24th Congressional District are more clueless than a sack of anvils.

Since 2002, Washington's answer to Kato Kaelin has blithely skipped to re-election, until this year when the Republican congressman actually found himself in a neck-and-neck race for his political survival against Democrat Suzanne Kosmas.

Darth Feeney?

Feeney's new press secretary is Pepper Pennington


When you were a kid, what did you want to be when you grow up? I wanted to be a doctor until reality bit and I received my first zero on a chemistry test and realized that I looked pretty lame in lab goggles.
The nerdiest thing you ever did as a kid was… I was a New Kids on the Block fan.
What was your very first job? I sold khakis at the GAP.
Biggest vice (PG-rated): College Football, Blue Moon, and my Blackberry.
When did you first think you might want to get into PR? When I didn't show up to law school and had to justify that decision to my parents, I thought I did a pretty good job explaining silly behavior.

Apparently Pepper sent Daniel Ruth a comment that upset him, to say the very least. Then he really let loose on Pepper and boss Feeney.

Pardon? Pennington Peppers Me For Being Feeney Meanie?

It was an obviously piqued and perturbed Pepper Pennington who pugnaciously propagated a pejoratively passionate passing shot over a recent column about her boss, Rep. Tom Feeney, R-Pawn.

"After reading your column, I planned on giving you the same treatment that you extended my boss and call you a vulgar name," a fairly peeved Pepper Pennington puckered. "But I stopped because I feel so sorry for your miserable existence and the shame your family and colleagues must feel for being associated with you."

Say, that was mighty piquant of Pepper Pennington, who is the press apparatchik for Feeney's re-election campaign, which has been dogged by a scandal involving the congressman accepting a $20,000 golf treat to Scotland courtesy of none other than the now imprisoned lobbyist Jack Abramoff.

The term that so appalled Pepper Pennington was the suggestion in the column that Feeney, R-Panhandler, was simply a lying, fibbing, prevaricating pinhead. Feeney has taken to the airwaves in his Oviedo-area district to pout that his glomming on to Abramoff's frequent flier card was nothing more than a "rookie mistake" made by a newbie congressman unfamiliar with the bizarre rituals of Washington.

To which one can only say to Pepper Pennington: Piffle!

Well done, Daniel Ruth.

[Mojorabbit]

1. Great article

I crack up every time I see his commercial begging forgiveness. He is trying so hard to look sincere.

[gratuitous]

2. Hand in the cookie jar all the way up to his armpit

But you have to wonder if Daniel Ruth isn't right about the voters in Feeney's district being dumber than a box of anvils. But here's hoping that this seat will be one of many swept away from the Republicans and into the Democrats' column.

[quaker bill]

3. A good friend of mine

now passed, was the last Democratic candidate elected to a partisan office in this District, He was elected in 1976. Feeney, while Speaker of the FL House supervised the creation of this District to be as safe for a Republican as possible. It would be nice to see him lose it.

By the way, I am happy that the author did not compare Feeney to a sack of anvils. Anvils can be useful, Feeney not so much.

[madfloridian]

5. Wonder if his apology ad will work enough to get him re-elected?

I will be stunned if it does.

[truedelphi]

13. Wasn't Feeney the same guy that hired Curtis to design the

election machinery that would allow for hack jobs??

And then someone was killed over all of it??

[voteearlyvoteoften]

4. He's going down...along with Keller

And in my wildest dreams Mica (Delays buddy)

[madfloridian]

9. Fingers crossed

[madfloridian]

6. Two ads....one attack ad on Feeney and his apology.

Feeney's sorry:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I5uyG5INRWY

Tom Feeney..no rookie mistake ad.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gBFmdCZVPCI

[loudsue]

7. The only thing that would make that ad against Feeney more damning

is if they tied the corruption to the sorry state of the economy that all this corruption has gotten us into.

[ddeclue]

8. Help send Feeney home! Support Suzanne Kosmas!

You should be able to donate on her website here:

http://kosmasforcongress.com/contribute

Doug D.

[madfloridian]

10. Thanks for the link.

[Blue_Tires]

11. wow...remind me to never piss off Dan Ruth

[madfloridian]

12. And old Dan pisses off quite easily.

Irascible.

[Blue_Tires]

14. he reads a lot like Bartcop

[fla nocount]

17. Puts me in mind of Charlie Reese. Retired 08/30/08 n/t

[KharmaTrain]

16. I Knew Dan 20 Plus Years Ago

He was working for the Chicago Sun-Times...did the entertainment beat where I'm sure he sharpened his writing skills. He can be merciless on a target, but, in person, he's a straight up, very nice guy. For a while he was the TV critic and it was a hoot tearing apart the latest offerings with him...he always had a zinger at the ready. No surprised he's make the "transition" to politics.

Here's hoping Feeney goes down...a total sleezeball that is a remnant of the "Gringrich Revolution"...all those scum need to be removed, investigated and prosecuted....they all have dirt and blood on their hands.

[georgecolombo]

15. Great PR

Feeney must be delighted with his office's PR efforts. It's ironic that the Republicans have managed to crafts for themselves the image of being a party of "adults." The truth is that, taken as a group, Republicans tend to be thin-skinned and exceedingly immature. Ms. Pennington may not have found the right profession but she's certainly found her peer group.